Today, Pennsylvania senators in the Senate Education Committee voted unanimously to enact a bell-to-bell phone ban in public schools.
SB 1014 now heads to the full chamber of the senate, and also still needs approval from the house before it would be enacted in Pennsylvania schools.
The bill mandates public school districts adopt some form of phone policy that bans the use of phones from the first bell to the last ‘class dismissed’. Schools would have some flexibility on if how the ban is enforced (take away phones at the start of the day, keep phones in lockers, keep phones in backpacks, etc).
Sen. Lindsey Williams, Democratic chair of the education committee, said there are still important questions and details to address in the bill.